Ruling Party Wins Gujarat Elections

LAURINDA KEYS

Published 8:00 pm, Saturday, December 14, 2002

Associated Press Writer

The ruling party won a sweeping victory Sunday in state elections in the western state of Gujarat_ a landslide that could boost Hindu supremacists in national politics and challenge the whole country's secular traditions.

The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party won 126 seats, gaining control of two-thirds of the 182-seat assembly in Gujarat, where 1,000 people died this year in the worst Hindu-Muslim rioting in a decade.

Gujarat's controversial BJP leader Narendra Modi retained his position as the state's chief minister and his assembly seat in the Maninagar district of Ahmadabad, the state's commercial capital. He has been criticized for saying that the Hindu revenge attacks against Muslims were understandable and for doing to little to stop the violence.

A thousand people were killed in the three months of violence, which began in late February after a Muslim mob set fire to a train car in the town of Godhra, killing 60 Hindus.

Underscoring continued tension, two men were killed in clashes at Hindu nationalist marches to celebrate the victory.

BJP worker Ramesh Raiyani was stabbed to death Sunday night by a group of Muslims in the central city of Rajkot after a party march, police said. In a separate attack, Ashok Solanki of the opposition Congress party, was stabbed and killed in the town of Vadodara, 70 miles east of Ahmadabad, Gujarat's commercial capital.

The BJP, led by 77-year-old Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, heads India's ruling 19-party coalition. It has held power since 1998 and will face national elections by 2004.

The Hindu nationalist party lost four state elections this year. The win in Gujarat makes Modi, 52, a hero with the BJP's most hard-line wing and its Hindu supremacist allies. One of those allies is the World Hindu Council, which wants the world's largest democracy to become a Hindu nation, dropping its 55-year tradition of secular government _ a policy referred to as Hindutva, or "Hindu-ness."

"Now politics in India will be based on Hindutva (Hindu-ness)," United News of India quoted the Hindu Council leader Praveen Togadia as saying.

Opposition parties said they feared the win in Gujarat would prompt the BJP to play on religious differences to improve their chances in a series of upcoming elections: votes in 10 states next year, then the national election by 2004.

The opposition Congress party, which won 51 seats in Gujarat, accused the BJP of exploiting ill-will against minority Muslims to garner support among the Hindu majority. "People have responded to the BJP's strident Hindu-nationalist campaign," said Shankersinh Vaghela, the Congress head in Gujarat.

"The BJP's victory is a setback for the cause of secular democracy," said D. Raja, leader of the Communist Party of India.

Prime Minister Vajpayee said Congress party was "harping on communalism," while the BJP was "trying not to." He told party workers Sunday that the voters had "given us a chance to change the map of Gujarat, to make it the base for preparing for elections in other states."

Modi, 52, attended a rally last week at which local BJP officials said Muslims _ who comprise 13 percent of India's population _ were traitors and should go to Pakistan. But on Sunday, he called for reconciliation.

"For the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, stop dividing Gujarat," he said.

The Election Commission had initially said the BJP took 125 seats and Congress 52. But in a final update, it said a BJP seat had been incorrected credited to Congress.

BJP supporters celebrated by exploding firecrackers at party headquarters in Ahmadabad, shouting, "Long live the BJP."

But the celebrations were marred when rival mobs hurled stones at each other before police dispersed them with tear gas in parts of the city. Police also used tear gas and imposed a curfew in Vadodara, 80 miles southeast of Ahmadabad, saying Muslims threw bricks at a BJP parade and Muslim-owned shops were burned down.